The
location of the exterior walls and interior posts of the alhóndiga
(warehouse).

The
Columbus house, made of rammed earth (tápia) and cut limestone,
is the oldest remnant of a European structure in the Americas.

Excavations
underway at the site

La Isabela

First European Town in America

In 1493, Christopher Columbus built the first intentional European colonial
town in the New World. It was intended as a base from which to establish
Spanish presence and dominion in the Indies, and was Columbus's American
home.

The site is located on the east bank of the Bajabonico River where it
empties into the Bay of Isabela, about 28 miles west of present Puerto
Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Columbus brought seventeen
ships carrying some 1,500 men, along with pigs, horses, cattle and other
livestock, seeds and plants for crops, and the tools and equipment necessary
to start a colony. Among the all-male settlers were craftsmen, builders,
Franciscan friars, farmers, other occupations and social classes, all necessary
to implement a Spanish way of life.

The town was surrounded by a wall, with afortified storehouse at one
end and Columbus's citadel at the other. It had a plaza on the water, with
several stone buildings and 200 palm thatch huts provided housing for most
of the town's inhabitants.

Archaeological evidence shows that there was a second settlement near
the walled town, that served as a center for ceramic production, industry,
agriculture and ranching. Isabela was only inhabited for five years, and
disease, overwork, Indian hostilities, food shortages and mutinies occurred
almost immediately, and it was abandoned when Santo Domingo was established
in 1496-1497.

Historical archaeologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History
collaborated with the Dirección Nacional de Parques de la República
Dominicana, and the Universidad Nacional e Experimental Francisco de Miranda
in Venezuela to excavate and study La Isabela between 1989 and 1999. The
results of that work can be seen on site at the Museum of la Isabela, as
well as in the articles, publications and reports listed in the links above.